2008 'deadliest' year for Palestinians: rights group

Gaza City: More than 1,000 Palestinians were killed in 2008 in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, making it the deadliest year for them, a Palestinian rights group has said.

A total of 820 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, while 40 were killed in the West Bank, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

At least half of them were civilians, including 108 children, the centre's director Raji Sourani said.

In addition, 143 Palestinians, among them 25 children and 13 women, were killed in inter-Palestinian violence last year, Sourani said.

"2008 was the worst year and the deadliest for the Palestinians ... since 1948," the year the state of Israel was created, Sourani said.

The previous annual report posted on the human rights centre's website said that 394 Palestinians, including 253 civilians, were killed by Israeli forces in 2007.

The centre said last month that 1,417 Palestinians - including 926 civilians - were killed in Israel's December-January onslaught on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Palestinian emergency services have put the number of dead from Israel's Operation Cast Lead at 1,475, including 943 civilians.

But the Israeli army has contested the numbers involving civilian deaths and insisted that the vast majority of those killed in its Gaza offensive were "terror operatives."